Arkanoid II

Genre

Breakout

Developer / Publisher

Taito / Imagine

Released

1988

Media

1 x

Rating

Graphics:

8.0

Sound:

8.0

Gameplay:

9.0

Overall:

8.0

Reviewed by

ndial

Arkanoid: The Revenge of Doh (or Arkanoid II) is a legendary 1987 breakout arcade game released by Taito and converted to several home computers in 1988. Is the sequel to Arkanoid game. This is the definitive bat and ball game. A real classic much like its predecessor!

Review

STORY / GAMEPLAY The mysterious enemy known as DOH (from the first Arkanoid) has returned to seek vengeance for their previous destruction. You must once again take control of the "Vaus" (your space ship paddle) and go through different and challenging levels (64 in total) in order to destroy the DOH empire once and for all. There are some differences compared to the original Arkanoid and especially on the power ups section. By hitting and breaking certain blocks, capsules drop down and they provide bonuses from making your paddle larger to running a multi-ball sequence. To add a bit of spice there are also some little space invaders to hinder your progress. These alien "things" tend to deflect balls and send them in multiple directions. Arkanoid 1 is surely a great game, but this time, Arkanoid II: The Revenge of DOH is the definite blockbuster game of all times.

GRAPHICS / SOUND The graphics on the MSX2 conversion are wonderful, with nice and bright colors much like the original (and almost similar to the CPC) but we would expect this conversion to be superior to the CPC or C64 counterparts considering the MSX2's capabilities. What is noticeable though is that the game plays and feels a bit slower than the other 8bit machines. The frame rate drops are frequent, which is rather awkward for an MSX2 game! Regarding the sound, the original intro tune is kept intact while the sound effects are all present and (again) based on the original coin-op version.